


Portraiture

by northeto (Emiline)



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fictional Religion & Theology, Gen, Prophetic Visions, Prophets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-03
Updated: 2010-10-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 04:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5614675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emiline/pseuds/northeto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He does not believe in God, but God does not require his belief. Adama will find divinity elsewhere.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Portraiture

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Love In Need of Restoration](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/166132) by kastari. 



> Vague spoilers for the miniseries and "Flesh and Bone" (Season 1, Ep 8)

“Where is my brother?”

“Dead. Adama bashed his skull in.”

I bow my head, and pray that my brother’s soul will reach God. I file away this information about Commander Adama, adding it with swift brushstrokes to my portrait of him. The colors shift, darkening slightly.

Adama is an important character in this drama, but his is not the most critical player. He requires no extra push to fulfill his role, which is the same as it has always been. It has no special touch of the divine. He does not believe in God, but God does not require his belief. Adama will find divinity elsewhere. 

xxxxxxxxxxxx

I do not see God’s plan for all of us. I see the foreshadowing that precedes every moment of every day. I see the patterns in the universe. I paint in careful strokes, the portraits of the players.

I see the fabric of the story, the warp and the weave. I see the players, connected in this current incarnation of a design as old as time itself. 

Laura knows who I am. I see the recognition in her eyes. She has seen me. God has spoken to her. 

Laura already walks in the path of prophecy, though she does not yet know her role. 

What is the most basic article of faith? _This is not all we are._

“Adama is a cylon.”

This is my gift to Laura.

Her portrait shines with the holy light of the chosen, dulled by the darkness of despair and failure that trail behind her. Her features are obscured, concealed beneath the clash of holy fire and the shadows of darkness. She is the chosen prophet, but in the final reckoning the people will need not prophets, but angels. 

The players may change, but the story remains the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the LiveJournal Community ar_drabbles, for challenge no 29: do you see what I see.
> 
> Leoben's statement about the most basic article of faith comes from "The Road Less Travelled" (Season 4, Ep 7), I believe.
> 
> My thanks to lj user kastari , and her haiku “Love in Need of Restoration”, which had the line “I am no painter”, which caught my imagination and served as a source of inspiration for this piece. My apologies as well, because after playing with her idea for a while I gave it to Leoben, the BSG poster child for Believers In Fate.


End file.
